Chris Stewart (author)

Christopher "Chris" Stewart (born 27 March 1950, Crawley, West Sussex) was the original drummer and a founding member of Genesis. He is now a farmer in Spain and the author of several popular autobiographical works.

Stewart grew up in Horsham, Sussex. He was a classmate of Tony Banks and Peter Gabriel at Charterhouse School in Surrey, and joined them in a school band called the Garden Wall. This was joined by classmates Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips to form Anon, which was renamed Genesis in January 1967. Stewart appears on Genesis' first two singles, "The Silent Sun"/"That's Me" and "A Winter's Tale"/"One-Eyed Hound." Although several demos from Stewart's time with the band appear on the Genesis Archive 1967-75 box set, he is not credited with playing on any of them (though one track features drumming that may have been done by Stewart).

At the recommendation of Jonathan King, Stewart was asked to leave the band in the summer of 1968 due to his poor technique, and was replaced by John Silver. After travelling and working throughout Europe, Stewart settled and bought a farm named El Valero in the Alpujarras region of Andalucia, where he lives and works with his wife Ana Exton and daughter Chloë. He came in last place for the position of local councillor in the 27 May 2007 local elections in Órgiva representing the Green Party, where he received 201 votes (roughly 8%).

He is now known for his autobiographical books, Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia (1999, ) and the sequels, A Parrot In The Pepper Tree () and The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society (2006, ), about his life farming in Spain. All three are also available as audiobooks (Lemons , Parrot , and Almond ), narrated by Stewart.

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